Process of treating silicious minerals for the production of chemical compounds.



. 'tfrrim AT P'r, our iii JORDAN HOMER. STOVEE, 0F TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

PROCESS OF TREATING SILICIOUS neeaoa No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that ll, JORDAN HOMER S'rovER, of Trenton, in the county of Mercer I and State of New Jersey, havei-nvented oer-- and also silica, may be obtained economi cally on a commercial scale.

Most of the processes for this purpose'that' hitherto have been attempted have not been suitable for commercial operations, owing to the formation of uncommerc'ial byproducts, or on account of incomplete reactions, the

' employment of expensive reagents, waste of energy or loss-of material, which disadvantages have prevented their practical applications.

In my process ll take a silicious'mineral, or a silicious rock which contains sufficient amounts of the essential elements of the com pounds which I am desirous of obtaining, forinstance, orthoclase, if ll, most desire potash; lepidolite if lithia, or other. rocks that give satisfactory yields of the compounds which ll desire, and increase the basicity of the silicates present in the selected material... I then decompose the silicates of increased basicity thus formed-and treat the products as hereinafter described, in order to extract the desired components.

As a typical illustration of my process in its preferred form, in case the selected mineral comprises a potash base, for instance orthoclase having the accepted formula 0 (K U.Al O .6SiO,), ll proceed as follows: The mineral is pulverized until it will pass through an eighty mesh screen, it is then mixed with an alkali metal carbonate, hy-

" drate, or oxid, or ll may use any ceramic flux,

and is-preferably fused'at a red heat. ll find that a good fusion mixtureconsists of one Specification of Letters Patent.

ivrrunnars roe run PRODUCTION or cnmrrcar corrrouuns, Y

Patented Nov, 5, rare,

Application filed tune or, iota sem Ito. Mateo.

part of orthoclase to one and one half parts of potassium carbonate (K 60 and, if desired, powdered coal or other combustible may be added to assist the fusion. ll may, however, heat this mixture to a much higher or lower temperature than that above indicated; in fact,if the rock is very finely pulverized, say, to 200 mesh, the reactions may be accomplished by sintering. Hence, ll use the term fusion as comprehensive of sintering. llf any alkali is volatilized, it can be condensed in the furnace stack and recovered. When the mass is fused, it is run into water, and agitated until the melt is disintegrated, a jet of steam, or compressed air, be-

ing employed to assist theagitation, if de-' sired. This puts in solution potassium carbonate, potassium hydrate, and potassium silicate, and leaves suspended a finely divided silicate of potash and alumina, which is decomposable by acid. a

The reactions which take place in the steps as described may, of course, vary, according to the characteristics of the initial material that is selected and accordin 'to the equivalency and characteristics 0 the basic reagents used, but, in general, it may he said that silicates of a higher basicity are formed.

When the resultant silicates react with thewater, hydrolysis takes place, forming hydrated silicates, and liberating, in solution, such soluble constituents as are formed.

Tn the particular instance above mentioned, someof the more important reactions may be stated, as follows, using the accepted formulae The fusion:

at -K,0;Al,@,.6Si +tK,U0, Orthoclase Potassium carbonate 7 KgUAhQESi U, aK flSiU 4'09,

7 Potassium Carbon silicate dioxid If, asis frequently the case,';when the orthoclase is associated with quartz the following additional reaction occurs:

(t2) SiU,+K,UO,+-K,O.Si, F-CU, Quartz Potassium Potassium Carbon' carbonate silicate dioxid 0 when t (it 7) K,OSiO' .8H,O

Potassium These reactions may be conveniently formulated in the following general equation, viz:

(#3) MO=Total of alkali metal oxide (R 0), alkaline earths and metal p'rotoxids (R0),

present in molecule.

R,O Total sesqui-oxids present in molecule.

aq Chemically combined water.

a, I), c, d, e, f Numerical coeiiicients. aMO.bR,O .cSiO M0 0+ de)MO.bR,O,.)c-f)SiO, eMO.fSiO,.

5 K osio sn o=K,sio,.sH o.

In case it is desired to remove any silica which is held in solution as soluble silicate,

' this can be done by adding an amount of a solution of a soluble aluminate, equivalent to react with the quantity ofsilica in solu-' tion, thus precipitating a hydrated alkaline silicate of alumina, which, after being precipitated, may be filtered out. For instance, in case pure orthoclase feldspar is taken, the amount of potassium aluminate necessary to bring about the last mentioned precipitation for each 100 lbs.'0f feldspar is 180 lbs.

The type of this reaction is as follows: (:11 6) 3 (K O.SiO .8H,O) K O.Al O .3H,O Potassium silicate Potassium aluminate K,O.Al,O .3SiO .2I-I,O GKOH 22H O Potassium Water hydrate While this satisfactorily precipitates the silica, it is my preference to accomplish this by the employment of carbon dioxid gas which Iprecipitates the silica as silicic acid e mixture'is carbonated.

F Carbon metasilicate dioxid Potassium 'Ortho-silicic carbonate acid Water and the solution, which is mainly'potassium described mannersyis then treated with an carbonate, will yield the potassium .carbonate when the solution is evaporated and allowed to crystallize, or it maybe evaporated to dryness and utilized in making-the next fusion mixture. 3V, r

The residue obtained in any of the before acid, one which forms solublesalts with the fluxes. or' basic part of the silicates being preferred. Chamber sulfuric acid does well if there are but small quantities of the alkaline earth metals present, though if there are large amounts of these elements in the rock, I find. an acid which forms soluble salts with these elements, such as hydrochloric acid, is to be preferred. Thistreatment decomposes the residue forming the soluble acid salts of potash and alumina,

and other bases present, and leaves behind s1hc1c acid.

Examples of the acldulatlon reactions are I as follows When the insoluble basic silicates are treated with an acid or acids which form soluble compounds with the silicate bases, the silicates are decomposed with the forma= tion of silicic acid and salts of the acid used.

These products may be now separated and converted into desired commercial forms by any of the means known to those versed in these arts. As an incident to the foregoing process, I obtain the silicic acid in such a condition that it can be filtered out and convertedinto water glass by boiling or digesting with alkali, the following being a typical formula:

alumina can be precipitated by means of potassium hydrate, or by employing some of my first solution before referred to, and can be filtered out with the silica. The alumina can then be dissolved by an acid, and after filtering, the silica will remain in such form that it will readily form water glass, on boiling or digesting with alkali. If any .de'

composed rock remains, it can be filtered out at this stage and returned to the next fusion.

Returning now to the original statement of my invention, I desire to point out the following further facts:

Having thus \described'the typical embodiments of my general process, I wish it to be understood that it is not limited to the initial material, nor to the described reagents, since other rocks containing the required constituents may be used, and chemical equivalents of such reagents as I have mentioned may be employed. Furthermore, there may be a wide variation in the proportions, without departing from the essential principle of my invention.

haaaear In my claims I employ the-term silicious mineral to indicate the general class of substances constituting the initial material, it being understood that said term is broadly comprehensive of natural mineral compounds which contain silica, whether such compound be a single, definite mineral, such as orthoclase, or a more complex aggregation, such as is found in rocks, as for instance, granite.

Having thus described my invention, claim: A

l. 'lhe process of treating silicate minerals which consists in fusing the mineral with an alkali metal base to efi'ect formation of an insoluble, decomposable, compound silicate, leaching outthe soluble products of said fusion, and decomposing'the insoluble residue with acid.

2. The process of treating, silicate minerals which consists in fusing the mineral with an alkali metal base to efi'ect formation of an insoluble, decomposable, compound silicate, leaching out the soluble products of said fusion, decomposing the insoluble resi due with acid, removing the soluble products of decomposition and digesting the residue with an alkali metal base.

3. The process of treating silicate minerals cate, leaching out the soluble products of said fusion and decomposing the insoluble residue with sulfuric acid.

d. The process of treating silicate minerals which consists in fusing the mineral with an alkali metal base to efiect formation of an insoluble, decomposable, compound silicate, leaching out thesoluble products of said fusion, decomposing the insoluble residue with sulfuric acid, removing the solution of sulfates thus formed, and digesting the insolubleresidue with an alkali metal base.

5. (lhe process of treating silicate minerals which'comprises fusing the mineral with an alkali metal base" to efl'ect formation of an insoluble, decomposable, compound silicate, separating said silicate and treating it with acid.

6. The process of treating silicate minerals which comprises fusing the mineral with an alkali metal base to efiect formation of an insoluble, decomposable compound silicate, separating said silicate and treating it with sulfuric acid,

ln testimony whereof, I have hereunto Joanna not mu srovnu.

Witnesses:

llnnnr bl, Paulo, dn, damns l-l. Bmm, E. L, l urltm rou, 

